Something More then Friendship
by TheDimensionOfWords
Summary: A series of little Tokka drabbles, focusing on little moments of their relationship, some defining and some pure fluff. Doesn't really stick to a timeline. Some additional characters will feature in a few stories.
1. Chapter 1

Colors were always something she could not understand, no matter how hard he tried to explain them to her. And she wouldn't care about them, except they seemed to such an important part of his world.

He used them to describe everything, from objects to even emotions. She had felt for the first time betrayed by her lack of sight, that she could not experience these descriptions of the world as he saw it.

And it hurt him when he saw her frustration. He could not stand to see her rare moments of self doubt. They were more painful for him then her.

So he stopped his habit. He rarely ever mentioned the color of anything. Instead he switched to using emotions to convey his visual understanding of an object.

They never spoke of this, and it became almost a code between them. One that Toph could use just as easily back.

And for this they were both grateful.


	2. Chapter 2

Lifting her face to the source of the water, Toph smiled. The raindrops landed on her teeth and leaked to her tongue, tasting sweet and free. This was her favorite way to experience water, standing on a rock hill in the midst of a summer storm. Here she couldn't drown, nor would mud blur her vision.

She was distracted enough by her own thoughts to not notice Sokka come up behind her until he had wrapped his strong arms securely around her waist. Relaxing against his chest, she grinned up, causing his heart to flutter. She enjoyed feeling the way she affected his heart, it could almost tell her what he was thinking. It also distracted her from the fact that her's speed up contently, his presence affecting her equally.

"Whatcha doing," he hummed into her shoulder, turning his head to give her neck a gentle kiss.

"Mm, watching the rain," she said seriously, turning in his arms as he placed another kiss on her chin.

"Cool," he responded after pressing his lips to her forehead. As he leaned in for her lips, her toes pushing her up to meet him, he paused, eyebrows scrunching together. "Wait..."

She laughed and said in a mock insulted voice, still up on her toes against him so that their noses brushed, "What, can't a blind girl watch that rain fall?"

His laughter rumbled through her in response, and he let his mouth finally find hers, her chuckles mixing with his own.


	3. Chapter 3

There was a time when they saw each other very rarely. He was filling the role of diplomat and council member for his people, she was a teacher and adventurer for hers. Separated as their two continents, they could only be content with the rare moments when their paths crossed.

There was a bitter loneliness in this fact that was buried by work and other relationships, only to appear at the worst times to worry at the heart.

Whenever they did meet, they greeted each other with a tight hug, bodies pressing together as though they might never see the other again. When they let go, tears simply of emotion blinked away quickly, it was as though they were never appart. Their friendship of sarcastic give and take, of acceptance of all they were, of best friends came so easily back to them.

It was as though they were two souls, forever connected.

When they had to leave each other again, they didn't hug. They never said goodbye. There was some swapped joke, a final laugh, and 'see you soon'. Even if 'soon' was a years time.

Then walking away without looking back. Never looking back, for if either did they would never allow these separations to happen again.


	4. Chapter 4

Waking up each morning was no longer a chore for the two souls inhabiting the tangled together bodies occupying the bed. This morning Toph's undershirt had ridden up where Sokka's hand had come to rest in the night. They were laying face to face, breath intermingling in a comforting way as one of Toph's hands made a nest in Sokka's loose hanging hair. In the middle of their bodies rested their other hands, fingers intertwined in the way they seemed to be made to be. Finally there were their legs, tangled in a way that could look uncomfortable, but seemed natural to the sleepers.

Opening his eyes to the soft morning light, Sokka found himself relaxed and content, a smile gracing his from the night before. He had come home from a late and unproductive council meeting, stressed and worn out, to find Toph in a similar state over her own work. They had both eaten a quick dinner in a comfortable silence before throwing of suits and armor off and collapsing together into bed.

All he had to do was wrap his arms around her as she reciprocated, and it was as if his entire crappy never happened. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, causing her to smile into his shoulder. And all was right.

And as her eye drifted open this morning, all he could do was press his face to her mussed morning hair and breath her in. He would wake up every morning just to be in her presence. And he knew she felt the same as she pressed a sleepy kiss to his collarbone and murmured, "G'morning Meathead."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: FYI in my headcanon, Toph adopted Lin sometime before starting a relationship with Sokka. Not really important to the plot of these, but I just wanted to put it out there.**

Sokka found his attention drawn only to the scene playing out in front of him. Toph playfully spun herself around, baby Lin laughing on her hip. Toph continued her dance, lifting Lin up to press their noses together and make her child laugh more gently. Lin tangled one hand in her mother's hair, other hand reaching to rest on her cheek. Toph turned and pressed a kiss to the small fingers, before settling Lin to cradle her against her chest.

She looked up at him after a moment, her grin bright and face flushed with content. It triggered something inside him to see her being a mother. This thing told him how right it was, but it also wanted him to be apart of every moment he could.

And when she welcomed him, let him be apart of her little family, the little voice told him not to blow it and never to let them go.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Younger friendship piece :)**

Toph set her foot down wearily, toes stretched out to test her surroundings. Smiling at the soft dirt that cushioned the souls of her feet, she let herself tip backwards. Landing a few inches in the dirt, she proceed to make one of her signature rock angels.

Sokka dismounted their ostrichhorse with his usual grace, landing on his face next to her when his foot caught on the sturup. Toph wouldn't admit to it, but she softened the grown for him, expecting this outcome.

"Your skills must get you all the ladies," Toph drawled sarcastically, content to remain in the dirt.

Sokka responded by pushing himself up and spitting the dirt from his mouth. Grumbling under his breath, he rolled over to match her position. "Sometimes I wonder how you became my best friend," he finally grouched after a few moments of silence.

"It's because I'm the only one who will put up with you for long periods of time," she mused, lifting a foot up to pick between her toes. "Thus, you somehow got me to go adventuring with you."

"You're the one who said exploring the Earth Kingdom sounded like fun," Sokka flapped his hands at the sky exasperatedly. "If you aren't having fun, you can just bend yourself back home."

"Nah, I have to stick around to make sure you don't get yourself killed by tripping on a twig or something," she grinned, enjoying getting him riled up.

Sokka just huffed, giving up on having a rational argument. But he found himself smiling as well, as he looked over at the girl in green at his side. She was always there for him, despite her harsh comments.

Feeling a sudden wave of gratitude, he muttered almost too quiet to hear, "Thanks Toph."

"No problem Meathead," she chuckled back. "Now, who is catching the ostrichhorse? It seems to have wandered off."


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey, stupidest person in this room!"

Sokka looked up from his task of washing dishes to glance around the kitchen. As besides him there was only Toph, who stood in the doorway just home from work and still clad in armor, he sighed and answered, "Yes, awesomest person in this room?"

To his surprise, Toph flushed, pale cheeks turning a vibrant cherry red, at his compliment. And with that her whole tough act vanished, worrying Sokka with its fall. She had stopped reacting to the little things he said a year into their relationship, which had been going strong for five years now. _'Wow, that long?' _He couldn't help thinking at he dried his hands, and moved toward her.

"You okay? Hard day at work?" he cupped a hand gently on her cheek as she stared off over his shoulder and nodded. Pressing a thumb to her hot cheek, he chuckled at the unusual amount of emotions on his love's face. "You sure? Been spending much time with Aang?"

She harrumphed, crossing her arms. "What's that suppose to mean? And coming from the guy who I come home to find washing the dishes like a good Sugarqueen."

He shrugged, stealing a quick kiss before turning back to his work, satisfied that she was fine. "I needed something to serve the meatastic dinner I have planned for tonight." He peeked over at her, now leaning on one side of the door frame. "Admiring the view?" he chuckled.

Toph smirked, hand moving to metal clad hip. "How many women come home to their warrior working away in the kitchen on their anniversary?" Ah, so she did remember. Again, that blush came to her cheeks.

And seeming to come to a decision, she removed something from a pocket. Trying to look as indifferent as possible (she should know better though, he knew her far to well to be fooled), she gently tossed an object on the counter next to him.

"Made something for you, now I'm going to change!" she babbled quickly, hurrying out of the room as he stared in shock at what she left behind.

"Toph?" he croaked, before clearing his throat and shouting after her. "TOPH BEIFONG IS THIS A BETROTHAL NECKLACE?"

**A/N: Ehehe, might continue this... ^-^**


	8. Chapter 8

Toph had been planning this for longer then she would like to admit. She had been working in her spare moments for over a year to make the perfect pendant, one that he would wear even if she was switching gender roles on him.

When she first came up with this plan, it had been a joke. She even said it out loud on one of the nights they spent drinking away the hardships of the work week. It had been followed by them laughing till they were crying on their bar stools.

But by then it was too late, the idea had planted itself in her head. And from there it grew. Every time they joked about marriage, and the rarer times when they talked about it seriously, the idea of proposing to him in the traditional Water Tribe manner made itself more and more appealing until she had concluded that it was the best course of action.

Then she started running over and over again in her mind how she might go about this. She could be sappy and romantic, but that was never their way. They were the best of friends, and they were passionate, but romantic was not really the way they went. So she came to the decision that casual would be the way to go... Besides the fact she would do so on their five year anniversary. So okay, they used anniversaries as an excuse to be sappy in their own signature way.

What was never in the plan was for the great Toph Beifong to get nerves. The whole day she was twitchy and irritable, causing her lieutenants to stay out of her way and work twice as hard. This backfired for her though as it meant she had nothing to do but brood over all the ways it could go wrong and he could say no.

Lin was sleeping over with Aang and Katara, no doubt terrorizing the kids but being an angle around her aunt and uncle. Toph knew that her daughter would be having a blast. But that lead her to think the worst thought yet of the demons that had been plaguing her all day.

_'What if she comes home to find her favorite Uncle Sokka gone.'_

But while Toph was her worst enemy, she was also her best ally. You just try and talk Toph Beifong out of doing something she had set her heart on. It is something that no one had yet to succeed at. It was no doubt the reason she had accomplished so many great things, from winning Earth Rumble, training the Avatar, starting a school for her own invented form of bending, becoming the chief of police, adopting a daughter... she could propose to Sokka!

So she went home, and found him playing perfect boyfriend. She honest to spirits was ready to marry this man and live happily ever after. So she proposed, in really the only way she knew how.

His shout followed her as she retreated further into the house, soon to be followed by his steps. Swallowing any residual fear, she prepared to argue her case if need be.

**A/N: Okay there is definitely going to be another part or two to this little story line. Then back to unconnected drabbles!**


	9. Chapter 9

Sokka caught up with her in the bedroom, where she was bending her armor on to its stand. He came to a halt some feet behind her, and they just stood that way for a while, both working to slow quicken breath, causing them to sigh at the same time. Sokka let out a nervous chuckle, while Toph turned around with a small smile, and the tension that had built up left in an instant.

Sokka then turned his attention to the trinket he held in his hand. It was expertly wrought, as could only be expected, tiny yet masculine geometric shapes surrounding a tiny, exact indent of his boomerang. It was attached to some cured yet soft leather that could go around either his neck or bicep. But what surprised him about it though was the material of the pendent itself, made of the unmistakable pitch black stone. Space earth.

Looking up at the beautiful woman in front of him, who was trying desperately to keep her cool, he focused on her bare arm. Stepping forward till he stood just inches away, he ran two gentle fingers on the bracelet from so long ago that she wore till this day, everyday. It was thinner, more delicate, its missing mass now resting as a question in his hand.

Replacing his fingers with lips, he moved then to her shoulder to whisper against it the only answer possible. "Yes."

_Both would swear that no crying followed, as he passes her the necklace back so she could fasten it in its proper place. Around his neck to be worn with the utmost pride._


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Back to only semi related drabbles in no order :)**

Whenever Sokka couldn't see where he was going in his life, he found himself heading straight to his best friend. She was unchanging, his rock in a world that was shifting so fast. He probably would have thought nothing more of it, excepting that was merely what he did, if not for the fact one of those weeks he'd come hide out at her school, she said with a chuckle,

"You never change Sokka. I can always rely on you to return. Like a boomerang."

"Hmm," he replied, but this stuck in his brain.

When he left, it nagged him. Why, he didn't know. It was just important in some way, tangling with his own perception.

A month later when Toph showed up for Iroh's birthday, Sokka met her at the gates and blurted without a thought, "Will you be my rock if I be your boomerang?"

Toph blushed in surprise, but a grin quickly raced to follow. "You got yourself a deal," was her answer, as she held her hand out for a shake. Callused hands clasped in a promise that was never to be broken.

Their first kiss was snuck on the balcony of the tea-shop that evening, sun setting in the distance.


	11. Chapter 11

Sokka was grinning from ear to ear, eyes sparkling with his happiness. Katara raised an eyebrow, but made no other comment, knowing Sokka would share in a short matter of time. Her brother was never very good at keeping his mouth shut.

Waterbending one more fish from the river they were camping by, she turned to face him with a knowing smirk as he bent to grab the basket containing her catch. The original four members of their group had met up for a well deserved adventure after the early meetings on constructing the new capital city for the United Republic.

Seeing the boiling over moment coming to a head, she faced Sokka with hands on her hips as he fiddled with the edge of the basket nervously. After a minute or so of this, with his eyes avoiding hers, she snapped good naturedly, "Oh, just spit it out already!"

He blushed beetcarrot red, but managed to look her in the eye. There was something in _his_ eyes, a spark of not just happiness but pure content, that brought a gentle smile to his Katara's face. And when he spoke, his voice was full of confidence, the need to share the reason for his happiness with his sister, "Toph and I are dating."

At first Katara felt her mouth open in surprise, before she thought back to what she had observed over the past month, the discreet interactions and less hidden looks. Her smile grew quickly back as she connected the dots of behavior. She brought her brother into a hug, "Congratulations Sokka."


	12. Chapter 12

"Meathead!"

"What, Melon Lord?"

"Nothin'."

"Why'd you yell then?"

"Because I wanted too!"

Aang and Katara sat peacefully in one of the gardens in the guest wing of the fire palace, listening the conversation being shouted across it. Toph was located in her room on one side, Sokka in his on the other and both seemed content to stay where they were. But even that distance couldn't stop them from the bickering they had been engaging in since they arrived.

"...HEY TOPH!"

"WHAT SNOOZLES?"

"YOU KNOW WHA-"

"ALRIGHT ENOUGH YOU TWO." The shout came from the usually subdued Mai as she made her way to where Aang and Katara sat. "IF I HEAR ANY MORE OF YOUR RIDICULOUS NOISE, I AM BANISHING YOU." She smirked ever so slightly at Aang and Katara, a twinkle in her eye speaking mischief.

"What are you up to?" Katara whispered to the Fire Lady. She merely pressed a finger to her lips in answer, before nodding to where the two verbal combatants had emerged.

Meeting on one of the opened aired walkway on either side of the garden, connecting the living spaces, the scolded two conversed in hushed tones. Throwing a last glare, Sokka put his arm around Toph's shoulders and they departed to the city. As their forms wandered out of sight, the sound of their bickering began again, before it too faded into nothing.

Aang and Katara gave Mai questioning looks, unsure of what they just witnessed. The Fire Lady shrugged and stated easily, "They needed to flirt in a less discreet manner. They don't like doing it in front of friends."

The moral of this story? Never let it be said that Mai did not understand emotions, even if she did not feel the need to express them herself.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Sorry it's been a little while, life's been being life :)**

Sokka was not sure how it happened, but he found himself cradling one-year-old Lin on a couch somewhere within the air temples. Her sleeping face was nuzzled on his shoulder, peaceful and happy. She could be a bit of a high strung baby when it came to who was holding her, but not with Sokka. She would always cuddled right to him or tugged curiously at his goatee or ponytail, depending on her state of alertness.

And this was at first what he attributed his feels of utter adoration and protectiveness for the baby girl. He loved his niece and nephews, but his feelings for Lin were somehow different. Ever since Toph brought her home and introduced her as her daughter, a tiny baby who's parents' lives had been taken in a landslide no Earthbenders had been close enough to prevent, he had felt a connection. And it seemed Lin had too, as their faces lit up every moment they saw each other after.

_'I suppose this is what it would feel like to be a father,'_ a thought whispered at the back of his mind. He pushed it away though, what right did he have? She was Toph's daughter, and had briefly been her birthparents. He had no such claim. '_Maybe I'm just lonely, seeing everyone with their families.' _But it wasn't that... not quite... he had a family it was just...

His thoughts were interrupted as Toph took a seat beside him, one of her rare gentle smiles gracing her face. He noticed more of them ever since Lin's arrival, a quieter, content Toph. She had become as loving and caring mother as he had ever seen, fitting this part of her with surprising ease into her gruffer mannerisms.

Moving his gaze from mother to daughter as Toph stroked her sleeping daughter's thick hair, something in the back of his mind whispered hints of just how right this was...

...Just in the near future...in the process of finding itself...


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Though it has been a ton of fun, I seem to have burned out on this little project. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited! Here is a final drabble, enjoy! :)**

Making his way down one of the many crowded sidewalks in Republic City, Sokka's mind was focused on other things. It probably should have been puzzling over how to handle whatever out there topic the newly elected Earth Kingdom delegate might bring to the table next. Or figuring out how he might surprise his youngest nephew at his fast approaching coming of age celebration.

But instead he was stuck on the fact he was going home to an empty house. Lin had moved out on her own a year before, so he was mostly accustomed to the lack of his daughter's presence. It was really the fact that his wife was currently off on some mission with Suki and Mai. Toph had informed him while she was packing that it was for the good of the Republic and all, that Aang and Zuko had requested a discreet resolve, that she would be back home before he noticed, not to be such a worry wart, all her usual. But he couldn't help but, if not worry, than miss her each moment that went by. Not to mention that, though he had the utmost faith in her abilities, the worry had kicked in as she had been gone going on two weeks.

Dodging around an elderly merchant selling cabbages, Sokka made it to the front of the beautiful stone home he shared with Toph. Walking in a slow, reluctant manner up the steps, trying to postpone the inevitable, he spoke aloud to himself, "Maybe I could pop in on Katara..." But as he reached the intricately crafted metal door latch, he found it unlocked.

Warrior senses coming alert, he opened the door as quietly as he could, listening for movement within. He nearly jumped when a shout resounded from the upper floor.

"Sokka, you meathead, it's me!" Toph was trying to sound angry, but her amusement at her husband's antics shown through.

As she made her way down the stairs, she felt his whole being relax. Before her feet could touch the floor, she was swept up into his arms, his smiling face pressed into her neck. She felt her face reciprocating as her arms wrapped around his shoulders. "You better stop before I think you missed me," she chuckled into his ear.

"Shut up," he muttered, goatee tickling her chin as his lips found her's.


End file.
